There has been a lot of geo-related API news lately, and in part that's due to the ongoing release of new APIs, features, functionality, and data for mapping and location platforms. The latest news is the addition of the recently released StreetSide panoramas and enhanced Bird's Eye imagery to the Bing Maps API. A little over a week after these new features were added to Bing Maps they have now been exposed via several methods in the Bing Maps API (our Bing Maps API Profile).

You should note that you'll need a Bing Maps API key in order to authenticate with the Silverlight control. You can sign up for a key at BingMapsPortal.com.

As mentioned in our previous post about the addition of perspective aerial imagery to Google Maps, the competition between Microsoft and Google mapping platforms is getting quite interesting, and this latest news from Microsoft makes the competition even more interesting.